Poll: 66% of Americans Believe Ground Troops Necessary to Fight ISIS

An estimated two-thirds of Americans think U.S. boots on the ground are necessary to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a NBC News/Marist poll found.

According to the poll, more respondents expressed a lack of faith in Obama’s strategy to combat ISIS (48 percent) when compared to those who say they are confident in the president’s proposal (45 percent).

Unsurprisingly, the poll noted the level of confidence is broken up along party lines.

The majority (82 percent) of those who “have little or no confidence in the president’s military strategy” are Republican, while most Democrats (71 percent) are confident in the president’s approach.

Despite the high lack of confidence in the president’s strategy, the majority (54 percent) of Americans want Congress to authorize Obama’s war measure against ISIS, which has met resistance by members of both parties.

Thirty-two percent of Americans do not want Congress to approve Obama’s proposed Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS.

Nevertheless, “a majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents think their congressional representative should support the president’s request,” said the poll.

The survey found that President Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, will be remembered more (44 percent) for starting a new war than ending one.

Forty percent, most of them Democrats, think the opposite is true. The majority of those who believe the president’s legacy will be defined by beginning a new military conflict are Republicans and Independents.

Included in the estimated two-thirds of Americans who support some degree of boots on the ground to fight ISIS are 26 percent who support deploying a large number of U.S. ground troops and 40 percent who back putting a limited number of soldiers on the ground.

The poll found that 26 percent do not want any boots on the ground.

When it comes to the use of ground troops, the majority who support such an approach are Republicans (38 percent), followed by independents (25 percent), and Democrats (16 percent).

Also at two-thirds (66 percent) is the number of Americans who “are optimistic that the U.S. and its allies will defeat ISIS. There is little partisan difference of opinion on this question,” the poll noted.

President Obama’s proposal for the use of military force against ISIS would carry into the next administration.

It prohibits the use of “enduring offensive ground combat operations” against ISIS, which has proven to be a main point of contention among lawmakers.